Good morning.
As President Joe Biden gave his Oval Office address last night, explaining his decision to step out of the presidential race, I thought about a theme that frequently emerges in my conversations with CEOs. Regardless of political affiliation, in companies big or small, business leaders often cite some regulatory challenge—whether it’s the FTC ban on noncompete agreements and antitrust probes or proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains and executive orders that result in volatile policy swings. With the speed of climate change, disruption and AI, some also talk about the need for regulatory clarity and guidelines.
So I was fascinated to see that 46% of respondents in our latest Fortune/Deloitte CEO Survey ranked regulation and taxes as the business areas likely to be impacted by the U.S. election. (Only 27% ranked the hot-button topic of immigration among their top three.) When asked what external issues they expect to influence or disrupt their business strategy over the next 12 months, CEOs cited geopolitical instability, inflation and regulation as the top three concerns.
